applied themes in ageing Flashcards
mental exercise
e.g. use of brain training apps to increase IQ or get better outcomes
intuitive reasoning behind mental exercise
idea that brain can be trained to become more mentally fit
theoretical reasoning behind mental exercise
WM capacity constrains a wide range of cognitive functions including fluid intelligence (Gf)
expanding WM capacity should benefit the cognitive functions that it constrains
correlational/description mental exercise studies types (2)
cross-sectional → reported mental exercise-cognition relations at a single time point
longitudinal → baseline reported mental exercise and cognition gains at later time points
interventions on mental exercise studies type - what can this show
longitudinal → immediate and long-term effects of mental exercise on cognition vs control
only way to establish a clear causal role of mental exercise on cognition is using intervention methods
effects immediately after intervention aren’t necessarily informative about age-related changes in mental ability that occur over years/decades
Singh-Manoux et al (2003) - study of cognition and leisure activities
objectives of study
measures of cognitive ability (5)
results
discussion
summary
high cognitive leisure activities = high cognitive ability (vice versa same for low)
this is independent of age, education and SES
therefore relationship between mental exercise and cog ability - don’t know direction
study
- survey of over 10,000 people about variety of issue with health and SES and leisure activities
- sorted leisure activities by level of cognitive effort and by whether they were individual or social
- researched whether activities that were high cognitive effort related to their cognitive abilities
tasks to measure cognitive abilities:
- verbal memory - 20 word free recall test
- AH4-I → series of 65 items (verbal + maths) - inductive reasoning to identify patterns and infer principles and rules
- Mill Hill → vocab test
- Semantic fluency → e.g. come up with as many animal words as possible in 1 min
- Phonemic fluency → e.g. come up with as many “s” words as possible in 1 min
results:
- stronger positive correlations between high cognitive leisure activities and cognitive ability
- lower correlations between cognitive ability and low cognitive effort leisure activities
- positive association between high cognitive effort leisure activities and ability independent of age, education, and SES
discussion:
this gives evidence for relationship between mental exercise and cognitive ability → but don’t know direction of causation e.g. cognitive better people do more taxing activities because they are able to
or could be due to another factor e.g. SES
differential preservation hypothesis
mental activity protects against age-related decline in mental ability
supports idea of causative role of mental exercise to minimise cognitive decline in older age
preserved differentiation hypothesis
main effects across age - nothing special about cumulative activity that differentially boosts performance later in life
previous mental ability effects later - therefore no point starting mental exercise with older
lack of interactions between age and mental exercise
methodological issues in mental training literature (3)
active vs passive control groups:
- control group shouldn’t just do nothing - make sure placebo is realistic enough → need to make sure meaningful mental exercise is what is measured
publication bias:
- publish more research with a positive or significant outcome rather than those that didn’t
adaptive procedures - adjusting for task difficulty:
- if you do multiple of same training sessions that don’t get harder you’re likely to get better at it → therefore it needs to adapt with difficulty
- make sure people are always performing at their maximum not just passing a level and staying there - never can train above this point if it doesn’t get harder
theoretical issues in mental training literature
what is being trained exactly
e.g. not just WM in general - which component specifically is being trained and can this improve with age
practical issues with mental training literature (3)
maintenance of training gains over long-term:
- does mental exercise have to continue being done to maintain this
initial cognitive ability as moderator of intervention:
- do the “rich get richer”
near and far transfer effects:
- complete a WM task
- near transfer → complete a similar WM task
- medium transfer → complete a task that requires similar concepts to WM
- far transfer → reasoning task (requires fluid intelligence not WM)
- e.g. doing a sudoku and the ability to find your keys = far transfer → not very similar cognitive abilities in these, therefore practicing sudoku wouldn’t improve the key finding abilities
training and improving core cognitive constructs → does this actually improve far transfer abilities or not?
but will people be better at more similar tasks when they’ve trained one WM task
use of transfer tasks with WM
to measure whether cognitive abilities are improved or just ability to complete a specific task
if abilities are improved then performance on other tasks should improve too
Kerbach and Verhaeghen (2014) - near and far transfer study with training
measures (4)
results
limitations
meta-analysis of training tasks
measures:
- gains in target task by training groups
- gains in target task by active and passive control groups
- near transfer gains
- far transfer gains
measured in effect size
results:
- training gains in both trained task as well as evidence of near and far transfer was found
- no age difference in effectiveness of training programs - benefits in younger and older adults
limitations
training effects may be exaggerated in the above study:
- far transfer = reasoning and task-switching merged
- no correction for baseline differences in groups
unclear which studies were used in this analysis - 17 total:
- 2 without control group
- 1 based on same sample used in other study
- 2 studies omitted
- 1 outlier found
found huge benefits of training but sample was very small
updated meta-analysis of Kerbach and Verhaeghen (2014) near and far transfer with training study
found very little gains at all and modest far transfer results - very few studies properly done
plotted against change in training conditions compared to control conditions
shows performance gains of mental exercise over controls in older adulthood
due to lack of control groups and small samples
effects of mental exercise have been exaggerated
recent meta-analysis of training tasks (2 studies)
effectiveness of mental exercise (e.g. training WM) in terms of far transfer is controversial → only clear benefits for trained tasks
Sala et al (2019)
large effect of intervention for trained tasks
smaller effects for near and far transfer tasks → null when using studies only with active controls
Hou et al (nd)
significant long term effects of intervention on updating, shifting, inhibition, and maintenance
weaker or null effects for far transfer tasks
